Page 5 - ELG1801 Jan Issue 453

WELCOME .
EDITOR’S LETTER

Fairy dust is ne for Christmas,

just keep it out of the classroom.

theteam

As the old year creeps into the new I spy some grounds for celebration
MELANIE
On our news pages, accredited Irish language schools are supporting a ban BUTLER,
editor-in-chief,
on zero hour contracts. The British Council is questioning the constant started teaching
quest for English Medium Instruction. EFL in Iran in
Meanwhile, in Tel Aviv, the bats are sporting regional accents. 1975, she worked
for the BBC
Even the US bears glad tidings. In Hawaii they are emphasising their World Service,
academic standards and their strict gun laws to entice international Pearson/Longman and Modern
students to their shores. In Oregon a study finds bilingualism may English teacher magazine before
taking over at the Gazette in
compensate for the negative effects of poverty on cognitive development. 1987 and also launching Study
Meanwhile, Massachusetts is moving away from sheltered instruction only for its ELLs and Travel magazine. Educated in ten
allowing evidence-based alternatives. schools in seven countries she
Evidence-based? Whatever next? Cambridge English Language Assessment will finally speaks uent French and Spanish
and rather rusty Italian.
replace the words ‘learning styles’ with ‘learning preferences’ on their website?
No sign yet, though trainers claim to IRENA
have been alerted to the change of word. BARKER,
commissioning
Thankfully there is a While they are at it, why doesn’t editor,
distinct lack of fairy dust Cambridge English add in a new term: studied French
and linguistics at
learning differences.
in the applied linguistics As Anne Margaret Smith points out on Durham, UK and
taught English in France for two
departments and university page 48 lots of our learners have brains years. Her subsequent 15-year
which are neurologically different from the
career in UK news journalism
language centres featured in norm. Up to ten per cent of any class, for includes reporting for local and
example, may show symptoms of dyslexia
regional newspapers, a news
our masters supplement when they are learning to read English, agency and a 10 year stint at the
though have no sign of it at all in their own Times Educational Supplement
language. magazine.
EFL teachers should be trained to know CLAUDIA
how to spot such differences and how to CIVININI, chief
adapt their teaching to meet these learners’ reporter,
needs. In an ideal world, all EFL teachers won a scholarship
to teach Italian
should be trained to help these learners in Australia in
using evidence -based techniques. Too 2009, where she
often they are just drowned in fairy dust quali ed as a state school teacher
and unicorns. Take ‘grounding and spacial in 2010. Bilingual in English and
Italian, she joined the Gazette
(sic) awareness’, a technique one EFL as head of research in 2014
training provider is touting in its Erasmus- after teaching for ve years. She
funded SEN course for teaching ‘difficult specialises in data journalism
and research news.
Mind the myths and learners’.
stick to the evidence Thankfully there is a distinct lack of fairy
dust in the applied linguistics departments ANDREA PÉREZ
and university language centres featured in EGIDO, online
our masters supplement. At Sussex University language centre, as Andrew Blair tells us in his and production
manager,
interview, the fields of study include multilingualism, global Englishes and teacher identity. has a BA in
Our Point of View piece this week come from Varinder Unlu who reminds us that despite Journalism from
being well into the 21st century, sexual harassment is still crouching in dark corners of the Complutense
ELT conference circuit. ‘People warn each other about certain men in the industry who have a University, Madrid and a Masters
in Corporate Communications
reputation for inappropriate behaviour,’ she writes. ‘Nothing is reported and if it is, nothing is from Kingston University,
done.’ Sounds familiar. But there are signs that the response to such events is changing. London. She previously worked
When consultant Hannah Alexander-Wright posted a piece about sexual harassment in the on the international desk at the
international study industry on her linked-in page, it went viral. Spanish newspaper La Razón.
She joined the Gazette as online
Welcome to 2018. MELANIE BUTLER, and social media editor in 2015.
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

editorial@elgazette.com 5